Hunicke: large publishers can learn from thatgamecompany

Thatgamecompany’s Robin Hunicke has said that large publishers could stand to learn from the tiny studio’s development process, in order to create games with “continuity and integrity ” in an “intimate and friendly” fashion.

In the latest episode of DoubleJump, Hunicke said moving from a team of seventy at EA to thatgamecompany’s ten had helped her learn how to create “intimate-feeling” games.

“If you wanna make something really focussed and really continuous, that feels like it has continuity and integrity, it’s sometimes very hard to do it with a large team,” she said.

“I would like to think that [thatgamecompany is] developing something special.

“Not just the games themselves, but the process – and that that process can help a big company like Electronic Arts or Activision or Ubisoft, THQ, where they have a lot of different teams that are really big, to learn to create something together in these big environments in a way that still feels really intimate and friendly.”

The producer, designer, programmer and artist commented that thatgamecompany’s philosophy is that “video games have the potential to change people’s lives and make them better”, and that the team’s own games are “about exploring new territory to create new feelings in our players – and that doesn’t mean that they’ll be positive”.

Flower was the lat release from the studio, with the much-anticipated Journey due some time this year.